Again, not true. There are shots of Cleopatra in the desert from the beginning of the film, all the shots with Art Acord I recall are exteriors. There are shots on Cleopatra's barge, etc. There are exteriors in Rome w/o Cleopatra in them.

Bob Birchard wrote:Again, not true. There are shots of Cleopatra in the desert from the beginning of the film, all the shots with Art Acord I recall are exteriors. There are shots on Cleopatra's barge, etc. There are exteriors in Rome w/o Cleopatra in them.

The reconstruction that I saw was straining as soon as they stepped outside because there was much less material to use, almost nothing for the robbing of the temple for example. I don't recall any exterior scenes in Rome.

Bob Birchard wrote:Again, not true. There are shots of Cleopatra in the desert from the beginning of the film, all the shots with Art Acord I recall are exteriors. There are shots on Cleopatra's barge, etc. There are exteriors in Rome w/o Cleopatra in them.

The reconstruction that I saw was straining as soon as they stepped outside because there was much less material to use, almost nothing for the robbing of the temple for example. I don't recall any exterior scenes in Rome.

By the way I suppose you know that some photos are used several times but zoomed in on different details? I'm sure the maker of the reconstruction said that there were only three - although he may have meant only three of the palace / encampment exterior. Otherwise it would be a really small number.

I am the one working on the reconstruction, for which I have gathered some 500 stills. Exterior shots are indeed rare, but there are about a dozen stills depicting Caesar's arrival at the Senate in the forum, and the speeches of Antony and Brutus. Additional 'Roman' scenes were filmed back East at something called 'the sunken gardens' but I have not determined an exact location. Other exterior shots include three stills showing the desert encampment of Cleopatra (filmed in sand dunes in Oxnard, CA), a few stills showing the waterfront of Alexandria and exterior of the palace shot at Dominguez Slough (now Torrance, CA), precious few stills showing the naval battle of Actium (shot at then Balboa Bay, now Newport Beach, CA) a couple of stills showing the arrival of Cleopatra's barge at Tarsus (probably Balboa Bay, but no supporting evidence). One report says there was filming at the canals of Venice, CA, but I have no additional evidence and credit this report to a sloppy researcher. The rest of the exteriors, including the Roman Forum, were likely filmed at the Fox Western street studio backlot. Although all the stills depict interiors, save for those described above. The tomb raiding scene now has a few stills covering it. Aside of Fox press releases talking about 'racing' chariots' no mention of a chariot race is mentioned in reviews, and likely it was never filmed.